Mesa Earns Daytona SuperSport Honors

“It was quite a wild race from my seat,” Sadowski said. “I had a lot of moments there as it went along and I didn’t think I was even going to make it up to the lead group. I was up on the banking at one point and it felt like they were slipping away.

“But I got up there and ended up in the lead on the last lap, where is where you don’t want to be. I slowed up in the chicane because I knew I couldn’t be in the lead and still have a good chance at getting the win.”

Gillim won a photo finish for third with Matthew Sadowski with the final margin between the two bikes a mere one-thousandth of a second.

“I knew it was going to be a battle, that’s Daytona,” Gillim said. “I knew my bike was running fast, and I knew if I could get into the draft early I could hang with the leaders. When it came down to those last couple of laps, I knew I could at least get a podium and I was hoping I could get enough of a draft for the win.

“Everybody started slowing down on the backstretch to set up for the last part of the race. I decided to go for and ran up into second or third a little early and the move paid off for me.”